Success for Local Volunteers

Local charity, HOPING, recently participated in the Hotels That Help 2019 Vote Contest, finishing 1st out of 24 homelessness charities from across the UK. HOPING received almost 1,000 votes from the local community and will receive £1,000 funding.

The UK is in the midst of a homelessness crisis and has one of the worst homelessness ratios in the whole of Europe. There are now over 200,000 homeless children in the UK – more than one for every classroom. Despite this fact, there remains a lack of funding available for the charities and organisations working to address this crisis. Hotels That Help are trying to offer a solution to the funding issue by giving people a way to donate to homelessness charities for free.

Hotels That Help CIC is the world’s first not-for-profit travel booking website. They have no paid staff, no offices and 100% of the money they make is used to help people escape homelessness. Founder Thomas Nevitt is determined to make up for the significant lack of funding available to homelessness charities in the UK. “I have seen just how damaging homelessness can be, especially for young families. This is a national problem, which has been getting more serious every year. Far too many [homelessness] charities are struggling to cope with the increased demand for their services. That’s why Hotels That Help was established.” Thomas will be visiting HOPING York Street Kitchen in September to present their award and said, “I couldn’t imagine a more worthy winner. The commitment of these volunteers is truly inspiring.”

HOPING York Street Kitchen is a grassroots organisation, which has provided hot meals to the increasing number of homeless people in York for almost two years. HOPING is run by volunteers and is funded entirely by donations from the public. HOPING founder Kym Brown said, “We live hand to mouth at the street kitchen so this £1000 is brilliant for us. It will buy raw ingredients for our casseroles, as well as bedrolls, sleeping bags and vital toiletries. This will see us into winter, guaranteeing meals for a few months, so we are enormously grateful to our voters and Hotels That Help. We are still dependent on the wonderful generosity of the public but this is a boost both practically and emotionally. It really does help.”

For more information on how you can help the homeless, without making a donation or sacrificing your time, visit www.HotelsThatHelp.co.uk/how.